Sam Saslow                                                                                  March 2017

Humanities                                                          Africans in NY: Creative Narrative

Peggy Gwynn In America

My name is Peggy Gwynn and I was captured from my homeland in Angola when I was just thirteen years old. I remember watching my family members being captured, torn from their homes, and brought onto the ship which was called a slaver, or that’s at least what I remember. The ship was very gross with mold growing everywhere and it was very tight and enclosed.  ! We made a few stops along the way because of the Triangular Trade, which I hated because it took a very long time. The journey took what seemed like forever and when we finally arrived in Boston, three people had died on the ship and were thrown in the ocean.

When I arrived in Boston, I was torn from my family and sold to the Cheviots, a very wealthy family at the slave market where there were many other slaves there. Mr. Cheviot was a very cruel man. He always made us clean all day and would rarely feed us. Worst of all he locked his wife up in his bedroom for days sometimes and she cried all day. When the American Revolution started, many African Americans were offered freedom to fight for the king. So I ran away from the Cheviots with the other slaves I lived with and we made it successfully. The crazy thing was that they were Patriots. On the way, while we were escaping, we came across by an African American man who was also a slave named Percy Gwynn. Immediately we fell in love.

When we got to New York we were able to get married in a Trinity Church. When the war started, Percy was fighting for the British and I was a cook. We lived in horrible makeshift tents in a burnt-out neighborhood along with other slaves. After the British lost the war we were granted our freedom. Only Slaves who proved that had an impact in the war could get their freedom. I sent a request to General Carleton of the loyalist army to ask for permission to sail with my husband. But a horrible man named Mr.Crammond tried to detain me and claimed that I didn’t serve on the crucial date of November 30, 1782, when the British signed the peace treaty with Paris. That devil man! I was turned over to him for slavery for the rest of my life and my sweet husband sailed off without me. Without Mr. Crammond I could have finished my life with my husband and have children.  

As I gaze out the window I wish I could be back home with my husband. I remember the day I ran away from the Cheviots and met my future husband like it was yesterday. Me and the other slaves; Boston King and Shirley Lockton, woke up in the middle of the night and got ready to go. The day before we gathered we got rum, milk, bread and butter. We knew the journey was going to be very long so we took a lot of food. I was thinking if we would really get freedom and if it was worth it to run away. I started to talk but as soon as I opened my mouth Boston and Shirley shut me up. It was very cold outside and we didn’t have many layers on so I was shivering and so were the other slaves. We started walking out and we saw other slaves running away with their lanterns so we knew we were not alone. We heard a door open in the distance and we looked behind and we saw Mr. Cheviot yelling and coming towards us. My heart stopped. If I got caught I would die for sure. We started running as fast as we could but he was gaining on us. I picked up a rock and dusted off some ants and chucked it at him. It him square in the face. He dropped to the floor cursing and screaming as we ran away.

¨Are you crazy Peggy? If that didn’t hit him you would be dead for sure,” said Boston.

          “Well I didn’t miss,” I fired back at him.

“C’mon we don’t have much time until they start coming back for us,” Shirley said.

As we kept walking through the night it started to get lighter. We were in the deep forest when the sun was fully up. We saw fewer people and farms. I looked up in the sky and saw the trees looking over me. We stopped a few times along for food and drinks. My feet were getting very sore towards the end of the day. When it started getting dark outside we set up camp and started to go to sleep. I lay on my back and looked up at the stars wishing I could be back home with my family.

We woke early and set out we were supposed to arrive in Boston by tonight, so I was very excited. Along the way, we met another slave a man who was badly beaten. His name was Percy Gwynn. He told us his story about being beaten by his owner on his way to Boston and barely escaping. We gave him food and took him on our journey. Something about him I liked because immediately we hit it off. We stayed behind the group and talked for hours. The journey was more pleasant with him. Towards the end of the day, we started seeing more people and houses. Then we finally arrived in New York. I looked around and it was so crowded! But there was a big relief that we finally made it. First, we went with other slaves to the British headquarters in New York. We were assigned jobs I was a cook and  we were assigned homes. Percy and I asked to be together and happily, they put us together. I never learned how to cook and I didn’t like our so I was pretty nervous but I was determined to start a new life with my new love. However it never turned out to happen how I hoped. I am alone and will never ever be able to see my husband again.

In this assignment we were given a biography about a slave who lived in New York. Then we had to write a historical fiction biography about the character and add our own facts and incorporate our knowledge in the unit. I learned about life for Africans in New York and my characters life as a cook during the American Revolution. From this assighment as a student I learned that I perfer working on test instaed of doing creative working becuase it is easy for me to express my knowledge and thinking in a more direct way.